1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to telemicroscopy, and more particularly to performing telemicroscopy using a wireless communication device that has an integrated camera, such as a cellphone or pda.
2. Description of Related Art
Telemedicine is a growing technology and is gaining acceptance in many medical fields, such as rheumatology and urology for diagnoses not requiring microscopy. For medical applications requiring high resolution microscopy, such as pathogen detection, state of the art microscopic images are typically transferred to a computer and transmitted via the Internet for “telemicroscopy” or “remote microscopy” applications. The only device coupled directly to a cellular phone provides low numerical aperture optics and inadequate magnification and resolution for most microscopy applications. Additional information concerning related art can be found in the following publications, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety:    Dziadzio M, Hamdulay S, Reddy V, Boyce S, Keat A, Andrews J. “A still image of a transient rash captured by a mobile phone.” Clin Rheumatol. 2006 Apr. 4.    Razdan S, Johannes J, Kuo R L, Bagley D H. “The camera phone: a novel aid in urologic practice.” Urology. 2006 April; 67(4):665-9.    Jukka-Tapani, M; K. Niemelae, H. Vasama, R. Mattila, M. Aikio, S. Aikio, J. Aikio. “Add-on laser reading device for a camera phone.” Proc. SPIE. Vol. SPIE-5962, pp. 685695.2005.    Rodriguez W R, Christodoulides N, Floriano P N, Graham S, Mohanty S, et al. (2005). “A Microchip CD4 Counting Method for HIV Monitoring in Resource-Poor Settings.” PLoS Med 2(7): e182.
Microscopy has a central place in medical diagnosis among other applications (plant pathology, epidemic tracking, materials science and evaluation, etc.). In the developed world, medical samples are prepared as slides, often (but not always) stained with a contrast agent (e.g. absorbing and/or fluorescent dye(s)), and placed on the stage of a large (˜0.5-1 m tall, 50+ kg) research microscope fitted with a ˜75 W halogen lamp and/or a ˜75+ W arc lamp illumination source. Optics allow imaging by eye at magnifications of up to 2000×, image capture with cameras (e.g. CCD cameras), and the use of a variety of contrast mechanisms well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, e.g. bright-field, fluorescence, dark field, oblique illumination, Hoffman modulation contrast, differential interference contrast (DIC), phase contrast, polarization microscopy, and the like. Captured images can be stored with patient records, emailed for purposes of medical consultation, and digitally processed if appropriate.
Much of this capability is unavailable in the developing world, for reasons including: cost; maintenance difficulty for delicate instruments; lack of supply chain for frequent replacement parts (arc lamps have lifetimes of only ˜200 hrs); lack of electricity to power lamps, etc.; lack of associated computer and/or internet resources; lack of portability to remote villages; etc. Even in the developed world, expense, complexity, and portability issues prevent widespread use of microscopy for medical purposes in non-hospital settings such as at-home monitoring of patient blood counts during chemotherapy. As a result, sick, immunocompromised patients must risk infection to travel to central medical facilities for testing.
Microscopy is a vital and ubiquitous healthcare tool in modern hospitals and clinics. However, developing countries often lack access to both clinical-quality microscopes to gather patient data and qualified medical personnel to provide diagnoses and treatment. Even in the U.S. and other developed countries, it is difficult to use microscopy for medical purposes in a non-hospital setting such as in the home.
Camera-equipped cell phones (“camera phones”) have optical systems that, due to the requirement of imaging large objects and fields of view (e.g. faces, people, or landscapes) onto small (˜5 mm on a side) sensors arrays (e.g. CCD or CMOS imaging array sensors), using a small (˜5 mm diameter, ˜5 mm focal length lens systems) must: have low object-side numerical aperture (NA), typically ≤0.01; non-telecentric design, with limitations known to those with ordinary skill in the art and including non-uniform collection efficiency across the field of view, and changes in the apparent magnification of an image with defocus; optical magnifications (M) (defined as from the object to the image on the sensor array) of <1, typically <0.03. For example, in the work by Jukka-Tapani Makinsen et al. (cited above) the optical magnification was ≤2.3, typically ≤1.5, indicating the unusualness of the present invention (all magnification beyond that in their system being done in software, not optically, and hence not increasing optical resolution). Furthermore, they have no associated transillumination system (e.g. as required for phase-contrast microscopy). Thus, there is not presently available a telemicroscopy apparatus based on a cell phone or similar device designed to be used for telemedicine applications.